nsswitch.conf

title: nsswitch.conf(5)

summary: Name Service Switch configuration file

text:
# nsswitch.conf(5)

## NAME
nsswitch.conf - Name Service Switch configuration file

## DESCRIPTION
The Name Service Switch (NSS) configuration file, /etc/nsswitch.conf, is used by the GNU C Library and certain other applications to determine the sources from which to obtain name-service information in a range of categories, and in what order. Each category of information is identified by a database name.

The file is plain ASCII text, with columns separated by spaces or tab characters. The first column specifies the database name. The remaining columns describe the order of sources to query and a limited set of actions that can be performed by lookup result.

The following databases are understood by the GNU C Library:

aliases

Mail aliases, used by getaliasent(3) and related functions.

ethers

Ethernet numbers.

group

Groups of users, used by getgrent(3) and related functions.

hosts

Host names and numbers, used by gethostbyname(3) and related functions.

initgroups

Supplementary group access list, used by getgrouplist(3) function.

netgroup

Network-wide list of hosts and users, used for access rules. C libraries before glibc 2.1 supported netgroups only over NIS.

networks

Network names and numbers, used by getnetent(3) and related functions.

passwd

User passwords, used by getpwent(3) and related functions.

protocols

Network protocols, used by getprotoent(3) and related functions.

publickey

Public and secret keys for Secure_RPC used by NFS and NIS+.

rpc

Remote procedure call names and numbers, used by getrpcbyname(3) and related functions.

services

Network services, used by getservent(3) and related functions.

shadow

Shadow user passwords, used by getspnam(3) and related functions.

The GNU C Library ignores databases with unknown names. Some applications use this to implement special handling for their own databases. For example, sudo(8) consults the sudoers database.

Here is an example /etc/nsswitch.conf file:

```
passwd:         compat
group:          compat
shadow:         compat
hosts:          dns [!UNAVAIL=return] files
networks:       nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
ethers:         nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
protocols:      nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
rpc:            nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
services:       nis [NOTFOUND=return] files
```

The first column is the database name. The remaining columns specify:

- One or more service specifications, for example, "files", "db", or "nis". The order of the services on the line determines the order in which those services will be queried, in turn, until a result is found.

- Optional actions to perform if a particular result is obtained from the preceding service, for example, "[NOTFOUND=return]".

The service specifications supported on your system depend on the presence of shared libraries, and are therefore extensible. Libraries called /lib/libnss_SERVICE.so.X will provide the named SERVICE. On a standard installation, you can use "files", "db", "nis", and "nisplus". For the hosts database, you can additionally specify "dns". For the passwd, group, and shadow databases, you can additionally specify "compat" (see Compatibility mode below). The version number X may be 1 for glibc 2.0, or 2 for glibc 2.1 and later. On systems with additional libraries installed, you may have access to further services such as "hesiod", "ldap", "winbind", and "wins".

An action may also be specified following a service specification. The action modifies the behavior following a result obtained from the preceding data source. Action items take the general form:

[STATUS=ACTION]

[!STATUS=ACTION]

where

STATUS => success | notfound | unavail | tryagain

ACTION => return | continue | merge

The ! negates the test, matching all possible results except the one specified. The case of the keywords is not significant.

The STATUS value is matched against the result of the lookup function called by the preceding service specification, and can be one of:

success

No error occurred and the requested entry is returned. The default action for this condition is "return".

notfound

The lookup succeeded, but the requested entry was not found. The default action for this condition is "continue".

unavail

The service is permanently unavailable. This can mean either that the required file cannot be read, or, for network services, that the server is not available or does not allow queries. The default action for this condition is "continue".

tryagain

The service is temporarily unavailable. This could mean a file is locked or a server currently cannot accept more connections. The default action for this condition is "continue".

The ACTION value can be one of:

return

Return a result now. Do not call any further lookup functions. However, for compatibility reasons, if this is the selected action for the group database and the notfound status, and the configuration file does not contain the initgroups line, the next lookup function is always called, without affecting the search result.

continue

Call the next lookup function.

merge

[SUCCESS=merge] is used between two database entries. When a group is located in the first of the two group entries, processing will continue on to the next one. If the group is also found in the next entry (and the group name and GID are an exact match), the member list of the second entry will be added to the group object to be returned. Available since glibc 2.24. Note that merging will not be done for getgrent(3) nor will duplicate members be pruned when they occur in both entries being merged.

### Compatibility mode (compat)
The NSS "compat" service is similar to "files" except that it additionally permits special entries in corresponding files for granting users or members of netgroups access to the system. The following entries are valid in this mode:

For passwd and shadow databases:

+user

Include the specified user from the NIS passwd/shadow map.

+@netgroup

Include all users in the given netgroup.

-user

Exclude the specified user from the NIS passwd/shadow map.

-@netgroup

Exclude all users in the given netgroup.

+

Include every user, except previously excluded ones, from the NIS passwd/shadow map.

For group database:

+group

Include the specified group from the NIS group map.

-group

Exclude the specified group from the NIS group map.

+

Include every group, except previously excluded ones, from the NIS group map.

By default, the source is "nis", but this may be overridden by specifying any NSS service except "compat" itself as the source for the pseudo-databases passwd_compat, group_compat, and shadow_compat.

## FILES
A service named SERVICE is implemented by a shared object library named libnss_SERVICE.so.X that resides in /lib.

/etc/nsswitch.conf

NSS configuration file.

/lib/libnss_compat.so.X

implements "compat" source.

/lib/libnss_db.so.X

implements "db" source.

/lib/libnss_dns.so.X

implements "dns" source.

/lib/libnss_files.so.X

implements "files" source.

/lib/libnss_hesiod.so.X

implements "hesiod" source.

/lib/libnss_nis.so.X

implements "nis" source.

/lib/libnss_nisplus.so.X

implements "nisplus" source.

The following files are read when "files" source is specified for respective databases:

aliases

/etc/aliases

ethers

/etc/ethers

group

/etc/group

hosts

/etc/hosts

initgroups

/etc/group

netgroup

/etc/netgroup

networks

/etc/networks

passwd

/etc/passwd

protocols

/etc/protocols

publickey

/etc/publickey

rpc

/etc/rpc

services

/etc/services

shadow

/etc/shadow

## NOTES
Within each process that uses nsswitch.conf, the entire file is read only once. If the file is later changed, the process will continue using the old configuration.

Traditionally, there was only a single source for service information, often in the form of a single configuration file (e.g., /etc/passwd). However, as other name services, such as the Network Information Service (NIS) and the Domain Name Service (DNS), became popular, a method was needed that would be more flexible than fixed search orders coded into the C library. The Name Service Switch mechanism, which was based on the mechanism used by Sun Microsystems in the Solaris 2 C library, introduced a cleaner solution to the problem.

## SEE ALSO
getent(1), nss(5)


passwd

package: man-pages

title: passwd(5)

summary: password file

text:
# passwd(5)

## NAME
passwd - password file

## DESCRIPTION
The /etc/passwd file is a text file that describes user login accounts for the system. It should have read permission allowed for all users (many utilities, like ls(1) use it to map user IDs to usernames), but write access only for the superuser.

In the good old days there was no great problem with this general read permission. Everybody could read the encrypted passwords, but the hardware was too slow to crack a well-chosen password, and moreover the basic assumption used to be that of a friendly user-community. These days many people run some version of the shadow password suite, where /etc/passwd has an 'x' character in the password field, and the encrypted passwords are in /etc/shadow, which is readable by the superuser only.

If the encrypted password, whether in /etc/passwd or in /etc/shadow, is an empty string, login is allowed without even asking for a password. Note that this functionality may be intentionally disabled in applications, or configurable (for example using the "nullok" or "nonull" arguments to pam_unix.so).

If the encrypted password in /etc/passwd is "*NP*" (without the quotes), the shadow record should be obtained from an NIS+ server.

Regardless of whether shadow passwords are used, many system administrators use an asterisk (*) in the encrypted password field to make sure that this user can not authenticate themself using a password. (But see NOTES below.)

If you create a new login, first put an asterisk (*) in the password field, then use passwd(1) to set it.

Each line of the file describes a single user, and contains seven colon-separated fields:

```
name:password:UID:GID:GECOS:directory:shell
```

The field are as follows:

name

This is the user's login name. It should not contain capital letters.

password

This is either the encrypted user password, an asterisk (*), or the letter 'x'. (See pwconv(8) for an explanation of 'x'.)

UID

The privileged root login account (superuser) has the user ID 0.

GID

This is the numeric primary group ID for this user. (Additional groups for the user are defined in the system group file; see group(5)).

GECOS

This field (sometimes called the "comment field") is optional and used only for informational purposes. Usually, it contains the full username. Some programs (for example, finger(1)) display information from this field.

GECOS stands for "General Electric Comprehensive Operating System", which was renamed to GCOS when GE's large systems division was sold to Honeywell. Dennis Ritchie has reported: "Sometimes we sent printer output or batch jobs to the GCOS machine. The gcos field in the password file was a place to stash the information for the $IDENTcard. Not elegant."

directory

This is the user's home directory: the initial directory where the user is placed after logging in. The value in this field is used to set the HOME environment variable.

shell

This is the program to run at login (if empty, use /bin/sh). If set to a nonexistent executable, the user will be unable to login through login(1). The value in this field is used to set the SHELL environment variable.

## FILES
/etc/passwd

## NOTES
If you want to create user groups, there must be an entry in /etc/group, or no group will exist.

If the encrypted password is set to an asterisk (*), the user will be unable to login using login(1), but may still login using rlogin(1), run existing processes and initiate new ones through rsh(1), cron(8), at(1), or mail filters, etc. Trying to lock an account by simply changing the shell field yields the same result and additionally allows the use of su(1).

## SEE ALSO
chfn(1), chsh(1), login(1), passwd(1), su(1), crypt(3), getpwent(3), getpwnam(3), group(5), shadow(5), vipw(8)